holidays, unexpected doll`s houses and sewing rooms (Collection 252)

Phew, it`s good to be back! Although you wouldn`t know from the frequency of my posts, I was actually on holiday in the past 3 weeks - meaning: abroad (no holiday from stitching! My Twelfth Night cushion is steadily growing, thank you very much). We spent some glorious, sunny days in Hungary, visiting my family - OK, by `spending` I mean `surviving` and by `sunny` I mean `death rays that will scorch you within an inch of your life and make you sweat from places you didn`t even know could sweat as soon as you move, even if that slightest movement is just to attempt to breathe some hot air in`. But the main thing is: it was fun.

While I was away, Cross Stitch Collection 252 hit the shops, and in it there`s the gorgeous Maria Diaz sewing room that I stitched a few months ago - here it is on the cover:

Please excuse the creases right at the sewing room`s frame - this magazine has been through a lot, same as me, in my native land that I now affectionately call The Oven. (And while I`m typing this, I just spotted: what gorgeous orchids in the bottom right corner!) ;)

Anyway, here`s my (as usual) badly lit photo of the finished picture, after 52 hours and some tweaking, unpicking and re-stitching as there was an error in the pattern, but eventually we got there:

I think it looks much better stretched and framed (and professionally lit & photographed, lol):

I love how even after stitching the whole piece, there are still some details that I`m only seeing now, in the photo! :) It was a pleasure to work on, although if I`m honest, I spent some foul-mouthed minutes (read: hours) on the fiddly BS and FKs on those flowers - I even took some (even more terrible than usual) close up photos:

I guess every stitcher`s different, and even the same person approaches the same task in a different way, depending on their mood; one day, you enjoy the challenge of a little `fiddliness` after the monotony of just cross stitch, the next you just want to get on with it and finish a project asap, especially two days before the deadline. All I seem to remember is that I sighed a big sigh of relief when these petals were done - I hope it won`t discourage anyone from sewing this, though! (Am writing very confidently here in the firm belief that there can`t be more than 2-3 dozen people out of 7 billion who actually read this). :D

Oh, and lookee what Postie brought me while I was away: the doll`s house has found its way back to me!!! I`m ecstatic and can`t wait to put it on my Wall of Glory... OK, I haven`t got one as such but there`s the Durene Jones sunflowers and Maria Diaz`s Santa`s Journey on the bedroom wall, so now I can hang the doll`s house next to them, awesome! :) Hope you`ve all had a great summer, happy stitching!

flower shop - Cross Stitch Collection 251

The latest issue of Collection hits the UK shops today and in it there`s another beautiful Maria Diaz design, the wee sister of the doll`s house I stitched a few months ago. After that biggie, this flower shop was a refreshing "mini" and with its 65 hours it very snugly fit into my photographic schedule, lol. So here are my 5-hourly pics of the project, and finally the framed version from the magazine - I`m not sure if there`s a single photo here that`d show you the beautiful olive shade of the fabric... but it is gorgeous, I lurved stitching on it! OK, the photos:

Hmmm, I wondered what was different: I forgot to string them together into a `movie`! Apologies for the extra scrolling - I don`t know if it`s any consolation but if your wrist feels a bit tender, I can totally relate: I`ve been working flat out for the past N weeks, mostly on Christmas designs... yep, it`s that time of the year! ;) Plus I`m stitching a tapestry for DMC, my first one ever, and I`m enjoying it immensely (even though it puts a different type of strain on my wrists), can`t wait to show you! :) Oh, that reminds me: this flower shop`s turned me into a `cover girl` again - I love it! Since Collection uses the current issue as their profile pic on Facebook, I can see it now every day for the next month, mwahaha! Thank you for reading my ramblings and scrolling 5 miles to see all my pictures - happy stitching! :)

Cross Stitch Collection 249 and Cross Stitcher 292

Yesterday I went to town and bought my monthly fix of Suguru (my latest craze; first, there was Sudoku, then Kakuro, and now I`m addicted to Suguru). Anyway, while I was in W H Smith, I also purchased some stitchy magazines - it seems my pieces have somewhat flooded the market recently, rofl!

First up, issue 249 of Collection, a.k.a. Part 3 of the doll`s house:

Also, in the same issue there`s the Permin still life I stitched a while back:

As I say in the magazine (under the pseudonym `Our Stitcher`, lol), I love stitching still life because this is the closest I, devoid of all drawing talent, can get to producing a painting, and unlike seasonal or *shivers* cutesy things, these works of art look good on any wall, any time. Apparently, this is part of a larger design - pity I didn`t get the big picture, so to speak... I would`ve loved to stitch the whole lot! ;)

However, after this 27-hour project, I had another one to keep me busy for 18 - this gorgeous floral plate by Maria Diaz for issue 292 of Cross Stitcher:

I only have 2 progress pics - one `halfway through` and one `finished`... but at least both are badly lit, rofl! Thank you for stopping by, in a few days I`ll be back with my duckie in Gold 120, and then that`s my `market domination` over for another few months at least. At the moment, I`m working on a cushion but it`s hardly developed beyond the Fleeting Idea Stage and thus I don`t want to share... oh, and soon I`ll start a BAP for my parents for Christmas... but I won`t be able to share this, either, for obvious reasons. So please rest assured that I`m constantly stitching - and from time to time I`ll inundate you with photos, in between big gaps of silence. Happy stitching! :)

doll`s house - Cross Stitch Collection 247-9

It seems the larger my projects are getting, the less frequently I visit my blog, not to mention others`. I`m currently working on a HAED for one of the magazines - which, as far as blogging is concerned, means I`ll see you again around... July? However, even though weeks go by between my posts, here`s my latest work recently published - an this one is a whopper too.

As you can see, it is also a Maria Diaz, and another 3-parter, like Santa`s Journey was back last year. What`s new this time is that Collection decided to use some of my 5-hourly progress photos; it was interesting to try and remember how I was getting on at certain stages now, months later, but I discovered I managed just fine. And I`m especially honored that they also put a wee piece in about me, the stitcher:

The 5-hourly photos are not in sequence - hence the slightly false impression that the ground floor can be completed in 30 hours... it took a bit longer than that, lol! The whole house took 170 hours, so I had 34 progress piccies by the time I finished - I thought I`d better string them together in a `movie` to save everyone some scrolling time ;)

However, I also have some close-ups that will not be featured in the magazine, so only the handful of people who still come and visit my stagnating blog will see them - a world premiere for all (both?) of my followers! So here`s the grand tour of the house, from room to room:

Thank you all who are still checking in here from time to time; as I said, I`m obsessively stitching, e.g. now a HAED, after which I want to start my own Starry Night - I love Van Gogh and bought this HAED chart over 3 years ago now, I think it`s time I did something with it. It`ll be nice when I can post progress pictures as and when I`m working on something! ;) Oh, and some pieces that I stitched last September are finally getting published in April, so I might see you sooner than I thought after all...?